188 SERMONS UPON PHILlFPrANS I. 21. [SER. IT.
truth of God's promise, when they can hazard all in hope of the accomplishment of them ; and it commendeth God's service when we are willing to please him, though with the loss of all. But this cannot be meant, for it is not usual to call anything we do or suffer for God gain to him ; and it suiteth not with the context, where his service in the gospel and his eternal interests are put in competition ; not the glory that Christ had by his life, and the glory Christ might have by his death, those are not the things that come in competition, but his service and glorious estate in heaven ; his own unspeakable joy and comfort, that is the gain he meaneth.
Doct. Whosoever dedicate their lives to Christ will find death itself to be great gain and advantage to them.
Death is theirs, because they are Christ's, devoted to his use and service, 1 Cor. iii. 22. It is theirs, that is, it conduceth to their use and benefit; their gain, and not their terror; an enemy to nature, but a friend to grace. In this sense it is said, Eccles. vii. 1, 'The day of one's death is better than the day of one's birth.' It is meant of those that leave a good name and a good savour behind them ; for so the whole verse runs, ' A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of one's death better than the day of one's birth.' The name of the wicked rotteth, but the name of the godly is a sweet perfume ; when the matter of the perfume is burnt, the scent remaineth behind them ; so when the person is gone, the savour of a good name liveth and remaineth behind them. Now to these is the day of their death better than the day of their birth, not only in that respect of name and re- putation which increaseth after death, when their failings are ' buried with them,' and removed out of sight ; but generally it is better with them, in regard both of sin and misery. In regard of sin, they are born in sin : Ps. li. 5, ' Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me ; ; but die in the Lord ; are laid to sleep in the bosom of Jesus : 1 Thes. iv. 13, 14, ' I would not have you ignorant concerning them that are asleep ; but if you believe that Jesus died, and rose again, so also they that sleep in Jesus,' &c. Born unclean, but die perfect. In regard of misery, birth lets us into troubles : ' Man is born to troubles, as the sparks fly upward,' Job v. 7. It is natural to us, as the ascending of light bodies and the descending of weighty and heavy bodies ; but death delivereth us out of them. In the grave there is rest : Job iii. 13, ' I shall lie still and be quiet ; I shall sleep and be at rest.' Not only a privative rest, or a cessation of troubles, but a positive rest, a blessed enjoyment of God : Kev. xiv. 13, ' Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, that they may rest from their labours, and their works do follow them.' These scriptures confirm the point.
In the illustration of it I shall perform three things —
1. Show that presently upon dying, man is capable of this gain,, or of a blessed estate.
2. I shall show you what this gain is.
3. That it is proper and peculiar only to those that dedicate their lives to Christ.
I. This is strongly implied, if not expressly asserted in this place, that as soon as he dieth man is capable of great gain, for otherwise the whole reasoning would fall to the ground, which is mainly built
VER. 21.] SERMONS UPON PHILIPPIANS I. 21. 18^
upon supposition of his gain. There are a sort of men in the world so drowned in sense that they cannot believe things to come, either questioning the immortality of the soul, or else, which is a step to it, asserting the sleep of it, and all because they so fancy it to be tied to the body as that it cannot exercise its functions and operations with- out it. Those that deny the being of the soul, or abiding of it after the body is dissolved, I shall deal with them in another place. I shall only speak now to those that grant the abiding of the soul, but in a deep sleep, without any sense or feeling of good or evil. I must show the falsehood of this opinion, or else all I shall speak will be to no purpose.
First, That the soul is distinct from the body, and is not merely the vigour of the blood, appeareth by scripture, reason, and experience.
1. In scripture we read that when man's body was organised and framed, God 'breathed into him the spirit of life,' Gen. ii. 7. The life of man is a distinct thing from this mass of flesh that is propor- tioned into hands and feet, head and belly, arms and legs, bones and sinews ; and this life of man, whatever it be, it is such a life as ini- plieth reason, and a faculty of understanding, and willing or choosing : ' In him was life, and this life was the light of men/ John i. 5. It cloth not only enliven this flesh, but discourse and choose things at its own pleasure ; a life that hath light in it. It is distinct from the body in its nature, being a substance immaterial, and not capable of being divided into parts, as the body is ; for it is a spirit, not created of matter, as the body was. The body was framed out of the dust of the ground, and therefore can be resolved into it again, but the spirit was immediately created by God himself out of nothing ; therefore the scripture saith, Eccles. xi. 7, ' Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it ; ' where the body, that was dust in its composition, shall be dust in its dis- solution. There is described the first and last condition of the body in regard of its material cause, and the soul is described in the kind of its being ; it is a spirit, or an immaterial substance ; its author, God, gave it. He framed the body too, but not so immediately. In ordinary generation, our natural fathers are distinguished from the Father of our spirits, Heb. xii. 9. And by its disposal; when the body returneth to dust, the soul returneth to God. The saints resign it : Acts vii. 59, ' They stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.'